


Shatter Glass

by Gelsey



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-23
Updated: 2012-04-23
Packaged: 2017-11-04 04:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/389693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gelsey/pseuds/Gelsey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A pane of glass, thin and breakable, was all that separated them. A pane of glass and a vast gulf of promises and dreams that had been shattered already and continued to litter their lives with slivers of pain and a myriad of tiny, almost invisible scars.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shatter Glass

Rose caught sight of him in Diagon Alley. Scorpius walked through the street, Calliope Zabini-Malfoy’s hand tucked into the crook of his elbow and young Orion Pollux holding other hand. Rose ducked her head, hiding behind a curtain of unruly red hair and the brim of her jaunty hat, and found the window of the shop in front of her extremely interesting all of the sudden.

She watched their faint reflection drift past, feeling her heart ache with every beat. She didn’t know how it could still hurt, after several years. After everything she’d gone through since they broke it off. But inside there was still a large raw spot, perhaps from the circumstances—how the stress from their respective families' bad, nay, horrible reactions had ended up making them miserable to each other as well as others. The pressure on Scorpius to marry a witch chosen by his grandfather had met the pressure on Rose to marry a regular wizard her father approved of and neither had come away unscathed.

Despite the pain, however, her eyes tracked his amorphous shape. She watched as he ushered his wife and his child into the robe shop. She watched from the very corner of her eye, under the edge of the brim of her decorated hat, as he walked past her and then into the shop belonging to the window she was in front of. 

Coincidence, she promised herself, unable to hear anything but her own thoughts and hopes and fears and the thrum of blood in her ears.

For a moment, she could see nothing but the glare of the sun on the glass, but she moved forward as if intrigued by the shop’s contents. She could see him then, standing practically in front of her, looking at her as hard as she was looking at him. Rose stepped closer still, lifting her fingertips to rest gently on the glass.

Scorpius looked dashing, handsome and rich. His blond hair was impeccably styled, his clothing extremely fashionable. But his eyes, those familiar stormy grey eyes, were filled with as much heartache as her own as he peered at her and lifted his hand also to rest directly across from hers.

A pane of glass, thin and breakable, was all that separated them. A pane of glass and a vast gulf of promises and dreams that had been shattered already and continued to litter their lives with slivers of pain and a myriad of tiny, almost invisible scars. Her heart broke anew, and from the way his face twisted, she rather thought his did too.

The corner of her lips lifted slightly, a wistful half smile that spoke of her pain more clearly than words. It said “I miss you” and “I still love you” and “You shattered me” and, most of all, “I wish.” He struggled to return it, his failure to be able to do so telling her “I’m sorry” and “If I could do it again” and “You’ll always be the love of my life” and, most of all, “I wish.”

Rose took a step back, just enough that her reflection stared back at her but not enough that she completely lost sight of him. For a moment, it looked like they stood side by side, together again. But they would always be separated by glass, both real and whole and imaginary and shattered.

Her hand pulled away from the window, a reluctant parting, and she cradled her palm over her heart for a moment as if holding the emotion inside it. Then she let it fall, spreading her fingers out toward him in a gesture of release, and turned away.

Each step felt like she walked on shards of broken glass. Rose wished she, like the tale of the mermaid who gave her heart to a prince and lived in pain upon her legs, could explode into sea foam and find freedom in the wind. Instead she simply had to keep walking and hope one day the pain would fade away into the wind of memory.

Behind her, she heard the crack of a window breaking. Rose refused to look back.


End file.
